Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister says it is time to think about European defense without American participation. However, that is completely against what Warsaw wants, warns professor Bogdan Góralczyk.
The world order is changing. Multilateralism is fading under Donald Trump and the unipolar order of the USA is shifting to a multipolar one. It may now include not only Russia and China, but even India and the rest of the BRICS.
World powers are beginning to settle once more, this time fighting over interests and no longer over values. This is the largest change brought about by Donald Trump and his administration. However, as Maas has exposed, this is a deeper process which goes beyond Trump.
What is the most shocking about this new balance of power? The European Union is not present as a force. There is Germany or the Berlin-Paris tandem, which is even stronger since Brexit.
There is the problem of “returning to the classics”: the ally (the US) far away and Europe’s hard core without or even against Poland
Heiko Maas wrote in “Handelsblatt” that it is time to consider European defense without the United States:
This is completely opposed to what Warsaw is looking for. If we add Germany wanting to “unify forces with France” and support for Emmanuel Macron’s “concentric circles” then there is the problem of “returning to the classics”: the ally (the US) far away and Europe’s hard core without or even against Poland.
What can Poland do, when its Atlantic sympathies clash with Maas’ “Atlantic antipathy” which could give a chance to “redefine the EU”? Maas’ words must be considered when he talks about “a review of alliances” and the possibility of a European superpower. All of this is in context of saying “no” to single sided American egoism and new trade demands.
This vision also includes the construction of a power which cannot be created by nation states, which have been recently endorsed by Warsaw and Budapest.
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